Jo Turney: As Seen on CCTV: Anti Social Knitwear and the Horror of the ‘Hoodie’
BathSpaUniversity
In 2005, the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, England, banned the wearing of hooded garments on the premises. This paper emerges as a result of media reports in the UK surrounding anti-social behaviour, crime and problems of youth culture and clothing, specifically knitted hooded garments (the ‘hoodie’).
Such reactions to these garments were not uncommon; they had, for some time, been identified within the national press as signs of a decline in social values and morality amongst the young. Influenced by US Black street culture and style, the hoodie, it seemed, had become a sign of ‘out of control’ or ‘anarchic’ Britain. Indeed this debate rages on; in recent weeks the leader of the opposition, David Cameron, has discussed and targeted a specific group as ‘hoodies’, in an attempt to bring youth issues back into the political arena. Drawing from press reports and public responses to the debate this paper questions the possibility of clothing as a mediator of behaviour, and whether clothing has the potential to articulate a fear of difference or ‘the other’?
The key themes of this paper address issues central to a discussion of textiles and dress – the ability to both reveal and conceal in relation to notions of morality. Frequently and historically, discourses surrounding issues of morality and dress focus on the notion of the ‘undressed’, of revealing too much flesh, of being overtly sexual. In the case of the hoodie, the opposite is clearly apparent; the wearer is covering his/her face to deliberately conceal identification and thus suggest possible criminal, anti-social or suspicious activity. Central to this discussion is the notion of covering the head as a deliberate act of concealment, which will be addressed in relation to historical examples (i.e. the Grim Reaper, Judges delivering the death sentence, mysterious cloaked villains, etc) and their relevance to dress as embodiment and disembodiment in the contemporary world. Concepts of race and otherness will add to the discussion.
Of equal importance is a discussion of knitwear, primarily as knitwear is essentially an inoffensive genre of textiles and clothing; from ‘granny’s’ handmade sweaters to generic forms of comfortable casual-wear, knitted garments have a particular place within the popular psyche. The majority of our early childhood clothing is knitted, offering the vulnerable comfort and warmth. Knitted garments (those which are handmade anyway) are often made and given as objects of love. Knitwear makes us feel good; it makes us feel comforted and safe. Hoodies are mass manufactured knitwear, lacking the sentimentality of the hand-knitted, it is anonymous, but nonetheless comfortable, stretching with us as we move like a second (albeit sometimes baggy) skin. This paper aims to address the ways in which ‘homely’ garments can become ‘un-homely’, how the hidden can conceal all we fear and our fascination with this, by referring to psychoanalytic theory, culminating in the hypothesis of ‘hoodies as horrific’.
Are ‘hoodies’ visual stimuli of a declining morality, concealing social problems, and fuelling a moral panic, or, are they representative of more personal concerns surrounding issues of the body, of death, the ‘other’ and horror? Just a hooded sweatshirt, but following such a bad press are they really ‘baddies’ or can hoodies become ‘goodies’?